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Individuality, Class

1.
!f~M~s ..-­
One
Popular Individualism
America has often been seen-and
has seen itself-as constantly in flux. 1 Still, as anyone who has
ever read de Tocqueville's Democracy in America knows after just
a few pages, there are many ways in which the United States
has changed only slightly in over 150 years, and one of the stable
elements is the continued pursuit of individualism by virtually
all sectors of the population. 2
At its most basic, individualism is the pursuit of personal
freedom and of personal control over the social and natural envi­
ronment. It is also an ideology-a set of beliefs, values, and goals­
and probably the most widely shared ideology in the U.s. Even
so it comes in many varieties. For example, the explicit, often
analytic, individualism written about by philosophers, commenta­
tors, and political ideologues is not the same as the implicit,
almost taken-for-granted ideology of the ordinary person. The
individualism of lay Americans is vernacular or amateur rather
than expert. 3 Since vernacular and amateur are still slightly pejora­
tive terms in some quarters, I prefer to call that individualism
popular, and I shall use popular.individualism as a synonym for
middle American individualism.
Individualism being among other things a series of goals, what
people want as individuals has been affected by changes in the
country. The personal freedom and the ways of seeking it of

2.
Middle American Individualism
2 Popular Individualism 3
the late-20th-century office worker must be different from those Popular individualism means the ability to make choices in a
of the 19th-century family farmer. Today the rugged individualism variety of social settings. It is the right to be neighborly or to
sought by entrepreneurs, the personal opportunity to act in a ignore the people next door. It is the ability to be distant from
stable, even regulated, market looked for by corporate individual­ incompatible relatives and to be with compatible friends instead;
ists, and the individual opportunity to perform needed tasks as to skip unwanted memberships in church or union; to vote for
one thinks best which is wanted by workers in large organizations candidates not supported by parents or spouses or not to vote
all have distinctive features. Needless to say, work-related individ­ at all; and to reject unwelcome advice or demands for behavior
ualisms vary from those pursued in the family or as a consumer. change from the spouse, employer, or anyone else.
Although the advocates of entrepreneurial and corporate, i.e.,
capitalist, individualism may not like to hear it, popular individual­
The Desire tor Personal Control
ism does not preach the virtues of risk-taking. Most middle Ameri­
The middle American search for personal freedom means liber­ cans hold jobs rather than pursue careers, and many people can
ation from unwelcome cultural, social, political, and economic lose these jobs quickly in an economic crisis. According to the
constraints, but also from lack of economic as well as emotional 1986 General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research
security. Middle Americans, like most other Americans, want Center (GSS hereafter), only 28 percent of the respondents said
to be able to avoid involuntary conformity, whether it is required it would be very easy to find new jobs. 5 When the median Ameri­
by the family, neighbors, or the government. They also try to can family income hovers around $29,500, as it did in 1986, and
sidestep obligatory membership in institutions and organizations, half of all families earn less, money remains scarce, disposable
sacred or secular. Whenever possible, they hope to be free to income is limited, and luxuries or expensive necessities still require
choose goods, services, and ideas, especially those relevant to savings or financing. No wonder, then, that people shun needless
the process of self-development, so that they can learn their own risks and would like government to protect them from unexpected
needs and wishes and begin to be able to achieve as many as problems. However, many capitalist individualists expect govern­
reasonably possible. Nonetheless, for most, popular individualism ment to protect them from the risks of competition too.
still involves a prior step, obtaining personal control over the In effect, the preoccupations of middle American individualism
general environment so as to minimize threat and unwanted sur­ remain modest. More important, individualism is not even an
prise, and in order to lay the groundwork for self-development. 4 entirely fitting term for them. Many values of popular individual­
The feeling of being in control is especially important to people ism are familistic, with control, security, comfort, and convenience
whose parents or grandparents lived lives so dominated by inse­ being sought for the family. Personal development itself is con­
curity that control-and self-reliance-become' the prerequisites ceived either to include or not to alienate the family.
for nearly everything else. Greater control spells more security, In addition, popular individualism eschews originality and
and with sufficient security people can start to loosen unwanted distinctiveness and is not opposed to some kinds of conformity,
social ties and to make more of their own choices about their especially if these are voluntary. While people may seek to quot;do
lives. Even convenience and comfort are pursued in part to add their own thing,quot; they do not mind if others do exactly the same
to the feeling of being in control, for achieving these ostensibly thing. Few look kindly on the competitive striving to be unique,
materialist goals also allows middle Americans a little firmer which they may condemn as showing off. What used to be called
grounding for the hope that they will never fall, or fall back, to keeping up with the Joneses is disapproved as well, because it
a subsistence-level existence. One of the most widely desired­ is deliberate imitation in the cause of upward mobility that also
and accessible-means of obtaining control has been home owner­ aims to diminish neighbors or colleagues. Deliberate imitation
ship. The nearly two-thirds of the population who are homeown­ done in sincere admiration for the taste of others is quite different,
ers at least control their place to live and often a piece of ground however, for it is a compliment to those others.
as well, even if in most instances actual ownership is held by a Furthermore, the goal of popular individualism is hardly sepa­
bank. ration from other people. Instead, it is to live mainly, and partici­

3.
Popular Individualism 5
Middle American Individualism
4
ernment, or charity. Poverty also virtually dictates conformity
pate actively, in a small part of society, the array of family, friends,
to an involuntary culture. That culture bears little resemblan<;:e
and informal relations and groups which I refer to as microsociety.
to the culture of poverty associated with the late Oscar Lewis,
Popular individualism is, therefore, very much a social phenome­
but being poor sharply limits people's choices to a small number
non. To be sure, in one sense all individualism is social, for the
of alternative means of surviving. Some poor people nonetheless
components from which we construct our identities and with
find ways of pursuing the goals of popUlar individualism, and
which we differentiate ourselves from others are themselves so­
appear in the media as sterling examples of the deserving poor.
cial, or else we could not communicate with anyone. We can
only survive as individuals because we are in and of society.
Identifying the Middle Americans6
Even the individualism of the highly educated, which appears
Middle America is above all a position in the U.S. social struc­
to aim for distinctiveness, is social, for the many ways by which
ture. Like other positions, it creates particular opportunities and
they seek quot;self-actualizationquot; are always conducted with, and
limits for the people occupying it and as a result encourages
for, others. The radically individual method of orthodox or classi­
them to choose a number of similar values. For example, control
cal psychoanalysis, in which one person seeks his or her own
and security are so central in popular individualism because of
identity in the company of a normally silent analyst, has just
where middle Americans stand economically, politically, and oth­
about disappeared in America.
erwise in society.
Middle Americans' individualism diverges considerably from
Middle America can also be described by the nature of its
the goals sought by others above and below them in the socioeco­
population. It is not an actual sector of the population, however,
nomic class hierarchy. Capitalist individualism is mainly eco­
but an umbrella concept to enable me to write about a large
nomic, and varies not only between entrepreneurs and corporate
slice of that population, literally the cultural, economic, and demo­
executives but also by the extent to which the goal is profit maxi­
graphic slice in the middle. More accurately, it is largely the middle
mization, market control, or escape from government regulation.
of the white population, for while middle America cannot be
As individuals, the very rich and the merely affluent usually
defined solely by income, many blacks and other racial minorities
pursue kinds of self-development that the average-income middle
cannot yet afford its individualistic goals. According to the U.S.
American cannot yet afford. The purposive questioning of social
Census, in 1985 the white median family income was $29,150
norms and the pervasive detachment from groups and group
but that of blacks was only $16,800. This huge income gap probably
influence which David Riesman and his coauthors called auton­
indicates as adequately as any other statistic the still sizeable
omy remain, I think, mainly attributes of upper-middle-class indi­
differences in job and other kinds of economic security and control
vidualism-of the people who were actually the principal subjects
over the general environment.
of The Lonely Crowd. Uniqueness used to be a goal of upper-class
Middle Americans are thus today mainly white, but they are
individualism, sought by people of independent wealth who did
neither yuppies nor real-life equivalents of Archie and Edith
not need to work and aimed instead to create a personal lifestyle
Bunker. While they are better educated than their parents, few
for themselves. Now uniqueness is more often an occupationally
are urbane types who pride themselves on intellectual or artistic
relevant goal of entertainers, artists, politicians, intellectuals-­
sophistication. Still home-centered but by no means homespun,
and professors--who must distinguish themselves from competi­
they live mainly in suburbs, small towns, or the small-town neigh­
tors offering a roughly similar product or service, and who yearn
borhoods to be found in most American cities. While many may
to be so original that they will be assured of fame and fortune
be conservative with respect to some specific social or religious
in their particular line of work.
values, cultural traditionalists and fundamentalists are few.
The poor may aspire to popular individualism and to become
Unless they are economically pressed or socially threatened by
middle American, but they cannot afford much individualism
real or imagined dangers, they are generally good-hearted, gen­
of any kind, for economic insecurity and frequent crises mean
erous, and charitable. However, they feel and act generously
lack of control, and thus dependence--on other people, the gov-

4.
Middle American Individualism Popular Individualism 7
6
mainly toward other individuals, especially victims, and their cratic, autocratic, or otherwise unsatisfactory character of the
generosity does not always extend to groups or classes of people, workplace or the employing organization. The more important
particularly those of lower status and darker skin. satisfactions people seek are in the family, among friends and
Middle Americans constitute the most important audience for neighbors, in clubs and leisure-time pursuits, and, for many but
popular culture and are the people whom the makers of network by no means all, in various efforts to try to help the children
television series and expensive Hollywood films want to attract. obtain more secure or better jobs. The ultimate goal for the children
The days when that or any other audience could be thought of is their chance at a career, that set of ever-improving positions
as a single mass are long gone, however, and younger middle in a single occupation that usually guarantees job and income
Americans are particularly skeptical of the old pieties and sexual security as well as higher prestige.
taboos of network television. Since the VCR became a mass pro­ Despite widespread attempts to increase the amount and qual­
duction item, middle Americans, like others, often desert network ity of schooling since World War II, most Americans still have
television and watch movies on their VCRs instead. These are only a high school diploma. The median years of schooling in
not always the kind labelled quot;family entertainment,quot; particularly 1985 were 12.6, and the amount has risen just a half year since
after the children have been put to bed. 1970. Young adults aged 25 to 29 are a little more likely to have
Middle Americans do not read many books, but then a very attended college, although the median years of schooling in this
small proportion of Americans have always bought most of the age group are 12.8, and the figure has increased only four-fifths
of a year since 1950. 9 In 1985 among the majority of Americans
books, including even the popular best sellers and romances.
Conversely, the increases in spare time, spare-time interests, and in the middle, roughly 12 percent had completed one to three
hobbies among middle Americans are partly responsible for the years of high school, 38 percent were high school graduates,
dramatic rise in periodical titles from 6,960 in 1950 to 11,328 in and 16 percent had gone to college for one to three years. 10 Sixteen
1986. 7 Middle Americans are apt to spend their vacations visiting percent had less education, 19 percent had more.
relatives and nearby U.S. landmarks and parks except when the Setting the income boundaries of middle America is extremely
house needs repainting. Childless and older people, however, difficult, because middle Americans are not an income group.
have begun to travel widely, especially when airlines offer bar­ Cultural and social characteristics do not correlate with income,
gains to popular tourist areas and pleasanter climates. and the same jobs differ in pay between industries and regions
A helpful way of visualizing middle America is in terms of of the country. Also, family and household incomes now vary
occupation, education, income, and social class. Most middle more because of multi-breadwinner and single parent families. I
Americans hold the better factory and service jobs as well as think of middle American family income, that is, the income of
the generally routine clerical, technical, sales, and related bureau­ families, as ranging from $15,000 to $37,500 these days. In 1984,
cratic office positions, and the humbler technician, semiprofes­ this range covered two-fifths of all families; i.e., those from the
sional, and supervisory jobs. Actually, many of the men in factory 31st to the 71st income percentiles. 11 At the bottom of this range,
and service jobs no longer wear blue collars, and women in these middle Americans obtain at best a moderi;lte income, their earnings
categories of work are sometimes distinguished as pink collar not that far removed from the 1986 poverty line of $11,000 for a
workers. 8 Whatever they wear on the job, however, neither the family of four. On the other hand, some of those at the high
most poorly paid service workers and laborers nor the highly end of the income range can pay for parts of an affluent standard
skilled technicians, professionals, managers, and executives are of living except in the ever more numerous expensive areas of
within this range of middle American jobs. the country.
The nature of their specific jobs notwithstanding, for virtually Job, school, and earnings categories can be summarized in
all middle Americans work remains a necessary-though person­ the language of socioeconomic class, and by that criterion, middle
ally frequently rewarding~vil with which to finance the rest America is a combination of working-class and lower-middle-class
of their lives. The evil aspect of work is most likely the bureau- families. Middle Americans are thus ranked above the lower class·

5.
Popular Individualism 9
Middle American Individualism
8
classify one sector of the total population. It must be remembered
of poorly paid service workers, laborers, and the jobless poor,
that the people in this category are dissimilar in many respects.
but below the upper middle class of generally affluent profession­
Their dissimilarities are easily lost sight of in a single category,
als, managers, and executives, as well as the upper class of top
but, for example, middle Americans at the lower income levels
executives and coupon clippers, most of whom are rich or very
still need to worry obtaining sufficient security. Those with better
rich. Middle Americans are also below a set of occupations many
incomes not only can afford higher levels of comfort and conve­
sociologists now think of as a middle-middle stratum. 12 People
nience but can think more often about such goals as self-develop­
in that stratum work in the better technical and supervisory as
ment.
well as the less prestigious and salaried professional jobs, with
Factors other than income or economic security also play a
college degrees obtained at the above-average public and private
role in creating differences among middle Americans. Aside from
colleges but not the so-called quot;selectivequot; schools of the Ivy League
the powerful role of race, middle Americans and popular individu­
and its peers.
alism are also affected by gender and age. Many women are
Middle American is not equivalent to middle class, for by
more involved in motherhood than self-development, while oth­
income, occupational, and educational criteria at least, middle
ers must still overcome income discrimination, as well as patriar­
Americans are not quite middle class. Furthermore, the term mid­
chal and quot;machoquot; male values that are much stronger than in
dle class is now used so broadly as to be virtually meaningless.
upper-middle-class America.
Journalists, for example, generally describe all but the very rich
Age differences playa fundamental role in shaping the values
and poor as middle class and the working class as lower middle
of middle Americans simply because security, control, comfort,
class. 13
and convenience have different meanings and priorities at all
A generation or two ago the notion of a combined lower­
stages in the life cycle. Although quot;baby boomersquot; are currently
middle- and working-class population as middle American would
being treated as a distinctive and homogeneous population cate­
not have made much sense, because the U.S. was still sharply
gory, the postwar baby boom took place between 1946 and about
and clearly divided into a working class holding factory jobs and
1965, and 20-year age differences are immense. One of the myths
a lower middle class in office jobS. 14 Since then, changes in the
that justifies the baby boomer category is that children born in
economy have led to a vast increase in the number of office work­
this period are the first generation to grow up with television,
ers, even if many of them are doing factory-like labor at typewriters
but television cannot shape people's employment chances, stan­
and word processors in the office. The number of factory jobs
dards of Iiving-or values. (Besides, television programming is
has remained fairly steady, but the proportion of old-style quot;pro­
not all that different from the radio programs and movies from
duction workersquot; has declined continuously since the end of
which earlier generations derived their entertainment.)
World War 11.1 5
Religious affiliation still makes for differences among middle
Although the working conditions of factory workers are still
Americans, especially the 30 to 40 percent who attend services
poorer than those of office workers, and the former remain hourly
weekly. Ethnicity is of minor importance to most descendants
wage labor while the latter are salaried, past earning differences
of Irish, Italian, Polish, and concurrent immigrations of the tum
have shrunk and so have differences in how the two strata spend
of the century, but it matters a great deal to the recent newcomers
their earnings. Working- and lower-middle-class people usually
from Asia, Latin America, and Europe, not only in how they
do not live in separate neighborhoods or speak and dress differ­
live but in what kinds of work they can obtain, especially when
ently. The once sizable gulfs in education, ways of raising children,
their skins are dark. Region matters too, especially outside the
furnishing dwellings, and spending leisure time have also de­
big cities, where regional economies and cultures survive. Last
clined. As long as note is taken of the remaining. differences
but not least, people who live in much the same ways and hold
such as job security and working conditions, the two populations
roughly the same opinions may still vote differently, perhaps
can often be described jointly as middle Americans.
because of where they live but also because of familial party
Nonetheless, middle America is only a category, a way to

6.
Middle American Individualism 11
Popular Individualism
10
allegiances or simply their personal conceptions of the party or The values do not disappear in years of economic decline, but
candidate they admire. Sometimes, researchers find middle Amer­ they are often put on hold, perhaps even suppressed until it
icans who describe themselves as socialists and vote Republican makes sense to bring them back into play. Meanwhile, people
and who can explain that there is no contradiction in this use them to maintain hope. When good times return, so do their
combination. 16 However, their political thinking does not follow individualistic values. Insofar as values are goals, people then
conventional Left-Right positions. try to move toward achieving them, but they must always first
In short, middle American individualism is not a seamless live in the present, exploiting opportunities and overcoming con­
set of values and cultural patterns. Concurrently, middle Ameri­ straints, including the goals of others. Some goals, sudden wealth
can values may also be shared by the rest of America. This is or world peace, may never be accessible and thus persist as hopes.
immediately apparent from national polls, for the answers of Middle American individualism is essentially a set of values and
middle Americans are often not very different from those of other goals that can, under optimal conditions, guide choices among
Americans except when economic interests are directly at stake. the opportunities middle Americans encounter.
(As a result, when reporting polls I will usually cite results for
the entire sample of respondents, indicating variations by income,
Popular Individualism as Historical Process
occupation, and education only when they are sizable.) In effect,
American values are surprisingly similar. Popular individualism must be nearly as old as human history.
Nonetheless, that similarity of American values must be inter­ If ordinary people had left an archaeological record, evidence of
preted carefully, for values are personal preferences and goals its existence would probably be found in the first era in which
for individual and social life. They are not necessarily expressions people stopped living in total mutual interdependence and could
of or clues to behavior, or even what people want or expect at least conceive of going their own way in some respects. Presum­
from government and the economy. ably this conception emerged and died out many times in human
Although values rarely determine behavior, under the right history.
conditions they can exert influence on it. 17 Some people know Contemporary individualism is associated with capitalism,
what they want and go after it. They can be successful if they among others by Marxist thinkers, but feudal serfs observed the
have enough of the needed material and emotional resources, individualistic whims of their masters and must have considered
the power to control the relevant environment, and the quot;wisdomquot; the possibility that in another world they too could live by their
not to fight economic and political forces clearly beyond their own values. Unlike capitalist individualism, popular individual­
control. While individualist ideology, particularly the capitalist ism is not a predominantly economic ideology, and there is no
version, proposes that everyone can be successful, most people reason to believe that ordinary people had to wait for the arrival
must operate with lesser expectations and turn values into prefer­ of capitalism to consider the possibility that they could dream
ences between choices. The choices available to them depend about or claim individual rights.
mainly on the opportunities and constraints they encounter. All In any case, America's popularindividualism is as old as Amer­
else being equal, the rich have more opportunities and fewer ica, for the intent to move to a distant continent free from the
constraints, while the poor are dominated by constraints and existence of a state or a state religion and the search for happiness
live virtually without choice. Middle Americans are in the middle. through the pursuit of property were invented in Europe. Indeed,
The balance of opportunities and constraints is determined not the individualism pursued and achieved by the Americans with
only by money or power, however, or else the rich would always whom de Tocqueville talked 150 years ago seems not to have
been very different from today's, or else the ethnographic portions
have tli.eir way.
Generally speaking, individualistic values play a bigger role of his book could not continue to ring so true.
during periods of economic prosperity, when ordinary people The Europeans who took the U.S. away from the Indians
can turn these values into choices, material and nonmaterial. came here for a variety of reasons and, among the nonreligious

7.
13
Middle American Individualism Popular Individualism
12
immigrants, some came not only by choice but to make a fresh ered that the communal values they brought with them could
start. Individualistic thoughts must have occurred to them before not be realized or that the old-country cultural patterns did not
they set off for the V.S. Thus, from the 17th to the 20th century work and had to be abandoned quickly.
l
a number of the new Americans may have entertained early ver­ Somewhat the same process of acculturation appears to take
sions of today's popular individualism. Of course, many were place among rural native Americans who come to the cities, for
driven here by economic or political necessity, although even they too gradually give up the ways of life of their place of origin.
necessity led some in an individualistic direction. For example, Moreover, as among immigrants, their culture starts to go first,
economic refugees appear to have become individualistic by being followed by the community, as the newcomers to the city or
pushed out of their communities by joblessness and thus forced their descendants no longer need or want to depend on the people
to sever communal ties even before their emigration. IS with whom they or their parents grew up, or on the institutions
Whatever their reasons for coming to the V.5. and their hopes they brought with them.
for their new lives here, a large proportion of the newcomers By that time they also become more aware of some drawbacks
reestablished the communities and cultures they had left. Many of their community. They may weary of the deference that must
had no choice because of language problems, but other immigrants be paid to communal leaders, or the material privileges that go
settled near relatives and people from the same town or rural to them and their relatives. They also tire of the jealousies, enmi­
ties, and battles that accompany communal dependency as both
area in Europe whenever possible.
Whether they were farming or working in factories, they personalities and interests clash. When people no longer see any
needed to be together to supply each other with 'the security need or reason to live together in proximate fashion, those who
and control over their lives they could not get from a laissez­ can afford better housing and neighborhoods move out. Many
faire economy, the strangers all around them, and the wealthy relatives and friends may choose the same new neighborhoods;
natives who ran most communities as well as the country, Mutual in the longer run, however, many of them disperse. In the mean­
dependence brought and kept the newcomers together, but it time, identities also change. People who came here as neighbors
from the same Sicilian village first become Sicilians and southern
frequently did so for pragmatic reasons rather than because of
cultural and communal traditions that had long ago been internal­ Italians, but eventually see themselves and are seen as Italian­
ized. When interdependence loses its traditional quality and be­ Americans. Likewise, people from the same Alabama village tum,
over time, into Southerners and, in the long run, WASPs.
comes pragmatic, however, and people achieve more economic ~.
F:
security, meet strangers with new ideas and are open to other Culture and community may be transformed drastically or
t disappear entirely, but familial relations change more slowly, even
influences, the cement that holds communities and cultures to­
if parents or in-laws no longer live next door. Family members
gether can begin to chip away quickly. ,
Ii
are in the final analysis the most easily relied-on source of emo­
Sociologists use the term acculturation to describe the process ~.
tional and financial support, and in that sense the most reliable
in which the immigrants, and particularly their descendants, first
alter and then drop most of the culture they bring with them source of security. As a result, some though not all the familial
t
from the old country.19 In the civic language, this is called Ameri­ relationships of immigrants--and those of rural Americans-per­
canization. The ways in which immigrants actually adopt the sist for a long time, and so do bits and pieces of familial culture
~
and ritual. Third- and fourth-generation descendants of European
values of America's popular individualism are still mysterious,
but somehow millions of people from a large and diverse set of immigrants retain some allegiance to ethnic foods when the rest
of the culture is gone, and all over the world there are families
countries and cultures in each of the numerous waves of immigra­
tion have learned, often quickly, to start becoming American in who light candles on Friday nights even though they cannot
this sense. It would be chauvinistic and wrong to assume that say why, and thus do not know they are descendants of Jews
who centuries ago had to hide their Jewishness in order to escape
popular individualism is uniquely American because a number
the Inquisition.
of newcomers arrived in America with individualistic values and
had only to leam the distinctively American ones. 20 Others discov- Neither the necessity for mutual dependence nor the accultur­

8.
Popular Individualism 15
14 .Middle American Individualism
Americans, those good times have since been ending precipitously
ation that moves individuals away from it happen automatically.
as a result of factory closings and the computer's inroads on
Earlier versions of popular individualism were also affected or
at least interrupted frequently by dramatic events, notably the other jobs.
The long period of postwar economic growth enabled people
ups and downs of the business cycle, prolonged periods of afflu­
to increase not only their own comfort and convenience but their
ence and depressions, major foreign wars and the Civil War.
economic security as well. As a result, middle Americans felt
The various economic changes wrought by the post-Civil War
more secure and were able to move away again from cultural
industrialization of the country, the arrival of the large corpora­
and communal dependence, in the process loosening a variety
tion, and the first merger movements at the end of the 19th
of ties in what appeared to be a permanent break with the past.
century also played their parts, although not all Americans were
For many, that process began with the move to new neighbor­
directly affected by these processes. Small family farmers, for
hoods, especially in the suburbs, which some people used not
example, could not survive without maintaining interdependence,
only to obtain the house they wanted but also to put some distance
and until World War II many factory workers were so poor and
between themselves and involuntary familial ties. In the communi­
so often out of work that they had to hang on for dear life to
ties or subdivisions into which they moved, they learned to make
families, churches, ethnic organizations, unions, and whatever
friends with strangers on the basis of shared interests rather than
other supports they could look to in hard times.
shared upbringing or history. Often all they shared at the start
Even so, the first seeds of today's middle American individual­
was common residence or children of the same age; later they
ism can probably be found in the late 19th century, when sales,
clerical, and other office jobs became available in large enough found or developed other mutual interests. People who moved
numbers to encourage the emergence of the modem lower middle into brand-new communities or subdivisions or moved in among
class. More seeds began to sprout by the 1920s, when some factory older residents in an established area, also started new clubs,
workers began to earn more than subsistence pay and a working voluntary associations, and the like. Most people limited them­
class that was not poor appeared on the scene. These tendencies selves to an informal social life, however, with other people who
may not have been very visible, if only because the people writing were homogeneous enough that they could be approached to
about the country still focused on the rich and the avant garde. participate in freely chosen companionship.
Even now the 1920s continue to be identified with quot;the jazz age,quot; Although the postwar suburbanization slowed down in the
quot;flaming youth,quot; and the discontents of expatriate American writ­ late 1960s and early 1970s, it has never really stopped, and a
new generation is repeating the same process at a somewhat
ers in Paris.
slower pace, in smaller numbers, and, due to the rising price of
housing, at a higher cost to the family budget. Most of the adoles­
The Post-World War II Era
cents who complained about being bored in postwar suburbia
To understand today's middle American individualism, it is and threatened to return to the cities have not done so. Instead
most important to understand the 20-odd years of rising income they have put distance between themselves and their parents
for most Americans from the end of World War II to the 1970s. by moving to newer areas yet further out from the central cities,
Since the Great Depression was expected to resume after the in part because the jobs have also been moving out. Others have
end of the war, the federal government intervened actively to headed for different parts of the country where better jobs and
stave off that possibility and, when the economy boomed, it set a different set of strangers awaited them. Some bored suburban
off the continuing upturn in real income among white middle adolescents did return to the cities, but the gentrification in which
Americans and others that is now thought of as the postwar they have been participating is not only bigger in visibility than
affluence. During the subsequent decades that upturn spread to in size but is almost entirely an upper-middle-class movement.
blacks, and in the 1960s it even initiated a very visible increase Few middle Americans can even afford to live in a gentrified
in the then tiny black upper middle class. In the 1970s the good house or a newly built central-city townhouse.
times slowed down for many, especially blacks. For some other Today other instances of the move to new areas and the initia­

9.
Middle American Individualism
16 17
Popular Individualism
tion of freely chosen companionship among homogeneous neigh­ downwardly mobile, however, and many are or have become
bors have taken place. One example may be found among older poor enough that survival is more urgent than new ways of living.
couples who move into retirement villages where they invent Concurrent with the move to new communities and areas
full-time versions of what young suburbanites only do part time. and various freely chosen companionships middle Americans
In some ways the old people have it a little easier, being segregated have been loosening their ties to a variety of traditional institu­
with their own age and class groups, but on the other hand tions. Surveys of religion indicate, for example, that while the
their task is more difficult since, lacking jobs or children, they number of people who say their belief in a deity, hell, or one or
must develop a nearly full-time set of leisure and social activities. more other symbols of religious faith remains high, only about
The retirement communities are imperfect in many respects, and a third to two-fifths of the people appear to attend church regu­
virtually all fail to serve their occupants if they become seriously larly, and they are distancing themselves from the demands of
or chronically ill with advancing age. These communities have organized religion and to some extent from the institution itself. 22
also been criticized as artificial because they diverge from multiage Instead, people are developing more individualistic conceptions
residential areas and fail to pay respects to high culture and upper­ of their faith and of their deity, which in tum leads to the decline
middle-class conceptions of community. Nonetheless, the com­ of denominational loyalties and the establishment of new churches
munities are early experiments in which some old people try and synagogues in which people share these individual concep­
new ways of being-and also not being-old. tions or learn them from each other. People continue to use the
Another example is the so-called quot;singles.quot; Fifteen to 20 years church for social opportunities, and, especially for singles,
ago, young middle Americans usually lived at home until mar­ churches are safer places in which to look for and meet compatible
riage, and in prosperous times most married early. Now, increas­ strangers than bars.
ing numbers, though still numerical minorities, are living by Loyalty to religious practices and beliefs declines when these
themselves as roommates or as unmarried couples, in the process are no longer thought necessary or when they conflict with more
inventing a variety of new household relationships.21 The singles urgent secular concerns. American Judaism made this discovery
are perhaps the most pioneering for despite the glamour the long ago, but the Catholic church is only learning it now. The
entertainment media often attach to their new status, it is ac­ decision not to go to Mass every week or to break with the tradi­
companied by considerable loneliness. Consequently, people who tional worship at Easter or the Jewish New Year probably is a
may have different occupational interests and recreation prefer­ significant step in the acculturation away from obligatory religious
ences but are brought together by singlehood and the absence demands. When Catholics discover that ending weekly Mass at­
of family responsibility have to invent sociable relations. These tendance does not feel like a sin to them or their friends and
must deal with loneliness as well as with the instability of single­ that they can still be religious, a new, more individualist relation­
hood, which may be a temporary status for some while for others ship to the Catholic church has begun. When people discover
it is pennanent--and, for many of the latter, involuntary. In addi­ that they need not always obey pastors, ministers, and rabbis
tion, single women must constantly confront men who are looking and that these men, and now women, still treat them as congre­
for sexual adventures disguised as social relationships. Singles gants, they can loosen their ties to the church or synagogue. 23
have to deal with more complicated issues than people who move The ties to political parties were never strong in middle Amer­
into suburbia or retirement villages. With greater distance and ica, for parties started to decline in relevance after the New Deal
fewer guidelines from American traditions to draw on, they will provided the public services and welfare programs that were once
be dropping and revising innovations in ways of living in larger offered by political machines, urban and rural. The decline in
proportions. party loyalty observed in elections and polls has often been blamed
A related set of singles who must try out innovations are on television news and commercials, which have replaced political
the female heads of single-parent households. Some are volun­ parties as the major campaign vehicles. However, I remember
tarily but most are involuntarily single. Almost all are involuntarily interviewing young suburbanites in the late 1940s, long before

10.
Middle American Individualism
18 Popular Individualism 19
the invention of television news, who felt that neither political One by-product of postwar economic security for the betler­
party dealt with their needs and who therefore described them­ off workers in stable industries was their declining need for a
union. 24 Also, many of these workers distrusted their unions,
selves as independents. Partly because many more people are
independents now and partly because television is such an expen­ most of which were monopolies and thus could allow some union
sive campaign tool, the national parties are in the process of leaders to assume autocratic power. Publicity about alleged and
becoming funding organizations to pay for television time, and actual corruption did not help.25
therefore are likely to obtain allegiance mainly from candidates, Subsequently, when once secure workers in steel and else­
campaign workers, and job seekers. where became jobless, the unions were already too weak to fight
Local parties are affected but not totally dominated by national management for the retention of jobs, although they have not
trends, and many local political machines continue to flourish, received any help from government or the national union move­
even if they bear little resemblance to the traditional Chicago ment. Unions have long been organizations of the employed and
variety. By now, however, they too cannot offer many reasons have often disavowed their own jobless members. A serious and
for voter loyalty. People who become homeowners generally de­ prolonged economic crisis may bring workers back to the unions,
velop a fairly standard set of political interests connected to the as has happened in the past. In the meantime, however, the
preservation of property and status values and the reduction of unions' shortcomings as well as their blue collar image have helped
local taxes. As a result, many suburban and some urban parties, discourage white collar workers and others in the new service
Democratic or Republican, are mainly homeowner lobbies and industries from considering unionization. Evidently the chances
attract people for this reason. When they do not take on this of potential economic and other gains from union membership
function or when they pay insufficient attention to the preserva­ are offset by the fear that joining a union entails a loss of economic
tion of property values, voters find yet another reason to give prestige. So far, many of today's middle American workers appear
up their allegiance to the parties. to prefer to go it on their individual own.
The revival of national single-issue lobbies which began in When all is said and done, probably the most far-reaching
the 1970s is partly a result of the availability of computerized change in post-World War II America has been in the nuclear
mailing lists, but, except among religious fundamentalists, it also family, as one generation has loosened the social and cultural
reflects the shift from supporting party issues to supporting indi­ ties that connect it to another. While family members still seem
vidually chosen ones. At the same time, voters can now establish to visit about as much as ever, parents' influence on the lives of
direct if vicarious relations with individual candidates, notably their adult children has waned. The diversity between generations
for the presidency. That shift is enhanced by the availability of is not absolute, as those observers who once thought they had
television and by yet newer technologies which allow politicians spotted a generation gap discovered, and under similar conditions
to appear to speak or write personal letters directly to voters, young people react no differently than their elders. Still, until
but new technology alone is not the explanation: F.D.R. used some time after World War II, middle Americans tended to resem­
the quot;fireside chatquot; to reach people but his success was more ble their parents. The best predictor of voting patterns was paren­
than an effect of the availability of radio, for in the nearly 50 tal voting, and people's cultural preferences, such as house styles,
years since he spoke, few presidents have been able to reach furniture, foods and cuisines, were not drastically at variance
people the same way, on radio or television. from parental ones.
A more dramatic installce of the loosening of organizational Equally important, throughout most of the postwar affluence,
ties among middle Americans is the diminution of the power of the occupational and social status of middle Americans was still
labor unions. Although corporate managements have used the largely shaped by that of their parents. Once adolescence was
emergence of world competition and the availability of low-wage over, non-mobile young adults moved into the occupational and
labor overseas to weaken the unions, their effort often reinforces social worlds of their parents. Since factory and other blue collar
a trend begun under different auspices. jobs appeared to be secure and wages were going up, sons fre­

11.
Popular Individualism 21
20 Middle American Individualism
companionship. If this becomes a Significant and pennanent fam­
quently worked in the same jobs or industries as their fathers.
ily function, the family may become a more central institution
Daughters were expected to stay home once the children came­
than even Sigmund Freud could have imagined. Meanwhile, the
and to consult their mothers and mothers-in-law about how to
only safe prediction is that the nuclear family has always changed
raise the next generation. Upward occupational mobility took
and that so far it has always survived.
place of course, but it was viewed as a break with the parental
generation and with non-mobile brothers, sisters and friends. 26 Inside the family and out, the loosening of some ties, the
altering of others, and the invention of new social forms are
The arrival of quot;automationquot; in the early 1960s and other indica­
not instances of an evolutionary step but of a process of adapting­
tions that safe and well-paid factory jobs might begin to disappear
and muddling through-that operates in zigzag fashion and may
persuaded more children from blue collar families to head for
include a return to past solutions. For example, when middle
college. 27 Upward occupational mobility became a necessity, and
American and other women discovered that gender liberation
in some families, it separated the generations, although not neces­
could bring sexual exploitation with it, they began to redefine
sarily by design. However, the young people made new kinds
the rules for sexual relations, even before herpes and AIDS. Wher­
of friends and met different kinds of potential mates at college.
ever unemployment increases, some sons and daughters may
Although they attended public commuter colleges and lived at
move back with their parents. In this case the move is dictated
home, increasing numbers found it hard to return afterwards to
purely by economic necessity, for even if the conflicts between
the life-styles they had learned from their parents.
the generations have not worsened in the last 25 years, people
In fact, during the late 1960s and the 1970s it appeared to
are less prepared to live with them-a by-product of what was
some that familial ties were unraveling and that the nuclear-family
once called the revolution of rising expectations.
household might become anachronistic. This prediction was
The changes in familial and other relations are therefore fre­
largely the result of increasing rates of divorce as well as the
quently accompanied by anger as well as by self-questioning and
first visible signs of sexual and related liberations. Hindsight indi­
anguish. Sometimes outside support is needed, which explains
cates, however, that the most visible liberation took place in the
a part of the increase in ministerial and secular counseling and
upper middle class. Even the new occupational opportunities
reasonably inexpensive kinds of therapy and pseudo-therapy.29
for, and aspirations of, women and the pleasures of young adult­
Some find help in religion. One result is the resurgence of ortho­
hood in an affluent society have not been as significant as first
doxy in all American religions, although not all orthodoxy repre­
thought, partly because the jobs open to middle American women
sents the inability to cope with individualism.
are not the glamorous professional careers available to highly
It is certainly too early even to guess whether middle American
educated upper-middle-class young women. In any case, wom­
individualism will increase or decrease people's happiness or men­
en's median age of marriage has climbed only slightly in the
last two decades, from 20.3 in 1960 to 22.5 in 1983. 28 tal health. Nonetheless, the increasing pursuit of self-development
has been accompanied by a steady outpouring of alarm about
Nonetheless, today's middle American nuclear family is differ­
increasing alienation and social disintegration, as well as predic­
ent in many respects from earlier ones. One major difference is
tions of a new era of selfishness and greed and yet more social
that two incomes are now necessary to maintain a middle Ameri­
disintegration.
can household, and even so, a higher proportion of the family
Most of these alarms are exaggerated or have nothing to do
budget is now spent on housing than before. In the 1920s, the
with popular individualism, a matter taken up in Chapter 5. The
sociologist Ernest Burgess proposed that the changes he saw in
opportunity for self-development will surely add to people's sense
the country at that time were producing a companionship family
of happiness, even if some have troubles, probably temporary,
in which husband and wife would be friends in addition to their
in learning to enjoy new opportunities for choice as well. An
other roles. He was only partly right, because the family is also
increase in mentally positive idiosyncracies should also be ex­
increasingly a haven from impersonal and involuntary institu­
pected, even if some people treat them as signs of new mental
tions, supplying emotional and other supports more intense than

12.
22 Middle AJDerican Individualism
illness. New neuroses may appear, even if the rate of neurosis
does not change. A rise in psychosis would not be surprising,
not so much among the practitioners of self-development as
among others who lose already eroding familial or other support
systems. For example, if extended families dispers'e and fewer
relatives are available, people who depend on them could tum
into lost souls.
Just as freedom evokes demands for control, so individuality
produces demands for conformity. Unmet demands eventually
begin to disappear, however. While middle American parents
continue to urge their daughters to marry and have children, it
is getting easier for the daughters to remain unmarried or, if
married, to remain childless if they choose, than it was in the
past. As a result, single women are under less pressure than
before, and the stigma that used to attach to spinsterhood is
gone. In fact so is that term, and even the euphemism quot;career
womanquot; is less acceptable than it once was. If there is a general
reduction of punitive conformity pressures, say of the kjnd once
exerted on spinsters, as well as more opportunity for people to
make personal choices that spell self-development, popular indi­
vidualism will surely be a boon to mental health.
The affluent period that followed World War II did not invent
self-development and the rest of popular individualism, but
helped to spread them, nourish them and give them a more
secure footing. Whatever economic security middle Americans
may have achieved, however, they know that it may not be perma­
nent. Most are too young to remember the Great Depression,
but they remain wary of what the economy and the government
could do to their lives.